or 'Things would be much easier if script writers were aware of a *small* set of rules' but who cares...
I don't remember another episode dealing with more paradoxes than 'A Christmas Carol'. Starting with the Doctor altering Kazran's time-line to Kazran hugging his younger self in the end - and surprisingly it doesn't mean the end of the world. There aren't any Reapers (we might now from 'Father's Day') and this time it also doesn't lead to the Doctor receiving doomsday-like messages from Oods or any other aliens. So what did we miss?
Although it has to be said that I think it's not us missing something but quite the opposite. Still, I suggest to keep the good old 'fans are going to sort that out somehow'-tradition up and to start with a few 'explanations'.
The most obvious and handy reason why this time the Doctor didn't need to care about the famous 'Laws of Time' was that in the 'Big Bang' two-parter the universe was whipped out and re-installed from Amy's memories. And maybe the Reapers some sort of didn't make it. Or that their non-appearance has something to do with the mysterious 'Silence'.
However, going into further detail, those lovely creatures also didn't appear in 'The Waters of Mars'. And here I have to mention the definition of a paradox, which is something along two points in time which aren't supposed to meet. Right? And fixpoints are certain events which aren't supposed to change, as seen in 'Fires of Pompeii' and 'Waters of Mars'. So, applying this knowledge, obviously Kazran's life was not exactly a fixed point in history. That's why the Doctor had some fun instead of feeling guilty while altering it.
But there is still the question why old Kazran could touch is younger self without any consequences. Well, going back to 'Waters of Mars' we know that by saving Adelaide Brooke the Doctor started off something terrifying which haven't appeared yet. Everything what happened in 'End of Time' was caused by the Master, except for the Ood's magically fast development of the ability of time travel and prophesying. Now, that could have been a result of the Doctor changing Adelaide's time-line. And this whole thing might be a hint to time having some sort of a problem in general which has to be sorted out, maybe by the Reapers. And that issue is keeping them busy for a while, or at least it appears to be a bit more important than the whole Kazran stuff. They seem to be busy saving time as we know it first, to have the time to deal with that nasty young-Kazran-thouching-old-Kazran incident. And it seems that they won't make it out of that important time-saving-job alive. So, to cut it short, whatever happened in 'Waters of Mars' may have made the Reapers cease to exist in general.
Or is it that the Reapers are just really afraid of (flying) sharks?
I don't remember another episode dealing with more paradoxes than 'A Christmas Carol'. Starting with the Doctor altering Kazran's time-line to Kazran hugging his younger self in the end - and surprisingly it doesn't mean the end of the world. There aren't any Reapers (we might now from 'Father's Day') and this time it also doesn't lead to the Doctor receiving doomsday-like messages from Oods or any other aliens. So what did we miss?
Although it has to be said that I think it's not us missing something but quite the opposite. Still, I suggest to keep the good old 'fans are going to sort that out somehow'-tradition up and to start with a few 'explanations'.
The most obvious and handy reason why this time the Doctor didn't need to care about the famous 'Laws of Time' was that in the 'Big Bang' two-parter the universe was whipped out and re-installed from Amy's memories. And maybe the Reapers some sort of didn't make it. Or that their non-appearance has something to do with the mysterious 'Silence'.
However, going into further detail, those lovely creatures also didn't appear in 'The Waters of Mars'. And here I have to mention the definition of a paradox, which is something along two points in time which aren't supposed to meet. Right? And fixpoints are certain events which aren't supposed to change, as seen in 'Fires of Pompeii' and 'Waters of Mars'. So, applying this knowledge, obviously Kazran's life was not exactly a fixed point in history. That's why the Doctor had some fun instead of feeling guilty while altering it.
But there is still the question why old Kazran could touch is younger self without any consequences. Well, going back to 'Waters of Mars' we know that by saving Adelaide Brooke the Doctor started off something terrifying which haven't appeared yet. Everything what happened in 'End of Time' was caused by the Master, except for the Ood's magically fast development of the ability of time travel and prophesying. Now, that could have been a result of the Doctor changing Adelaide's time-line. And this whole thing might be a hint to time having some sort of a problem in general which has to be sorted out, maybe by the Reapers. And that issue is keeping them busy for a while, or at least it appears to be a bit more important than the whole Kazran stuff. They seem to be busy saving time as we know it first, to have the time to deal with that nasty young-Kazran-thouching-old-Kazran incident. And it seems that they won't make it out of that important time-saving-job alive. So, to cut it short, whatever happened in 'Waters of Mars' may have made the Reapers cease to exist in general.
Or is it that the Reapers are just really afraid of (flying) sharks?
It's just my opinion, but the reapers only seem to get involved when someone changes their own past like Rose did. The Doctor was able to change Sardek's past without affecting his own.
ReplyDeleteIn "The Sound of Drums" we find out that the Tardis can shield from paradox. If you look in the background of the scene where the young and old Sardek's touch, you can see the Tardis is there and the door is open. That door is never randomly left open.
You're right about the TARDIS being able to fix slight paradoxes. Still, the situation with younger Kazran touching his older self remains the same as the one in 'Father's Day'. The Doctor has already restored the TARDIS when Rose touches her infant self. What makes the TARDIS being also present during that bit. However, it can't prevent the reapers (or was it just one?) entering the church. Apparently there are a few paradoxes, and this seems to be one of those, which even the TARDIS can't fix.
ReplyDeleteBut thanks for your comment :)
The Master bringing humans from the end of time to kill humans that had to be their ancestors is not a slight paradox.
ReplyDeleteThe situation in "Father's Day" is nothing like this episide. The reapers came because Rose saved her father from dying. She significantly changed her own time line. She didn't just touch her past self. The reapers left as soon as Rose's father was dead.
When the Doctor warned Rose not to touch herself he was already trying to fix a time stream damaged by Rose saving her father, and the Tardis was not there.
Didn't the two Doctors in Time Crash also touch (within the TARDIS)? I think Amy touched her younger self in Big Bang as well.
ReplyDeleteOk, I apology for my word choice... the TARDIS was some sort of dying when fixing the Sound of Drums paradox, so it wasn't a small one, and strictly speaking she was still in recovery modus when Peter handed young Rose to 'proper' Rose. Although I have to add that Reaper only appearing inside the church after that in spite of Rose not really changing her own past through holding herself.
ReplyDeleteActually, my main problem with your theory about the Reapers only appearing when someone changes their own past is that it doesn't explain a certain lack of them in Waters of Mars. Come on, even the Dalkes were afraid of changing Adelaide's time line. And technically speaking, with Adelaide killing herself on Earth she did change it, although it was not really her fault. However, I guess the Reapers don't care about the latter aspect. Her dying on Mars seems to have been one of the most important fix-points in the universe (thanks to RTD). Apparently, that changed something terrible creating a threat to... whatever. So it was at least a similarly big paradox as the one in 'Father's Day' and the TARDIS didn't fix it (although she was perfectly ok in that ep). However, the Reapers didn't appear. So saying that whatever happened there had the side-effect of whipping them out would come pretty handy.
And I don't like the idea of the TARDIS being the new sonic screwdriver, saying that her sheer appearance can fix everything.
That Amy could touch her younger self without any consequences may be due to the whole universe (and time) collapsing. That's also the general explanation for the 'slightly future' Doctor giving Rory the sonic screw-driver, while actually still being trapped in the Pandorica. Or the Doctor touching his almost dead self a few minutes afterwards; which leads me to Time Crash. I think there are other laws for Time Lords in general, because back in the 'good old days' the Doctor also touched his older/younger selves in several multi-Doctor stories.
there was also The Three Doctors and The Five Doctors back in classic Who. you had various incarnations of the doctor coming into physical contact with each other left and right in those episodes. Nothing happened there. That line about not being able to touch a past version of yourself was made up for one episode on the new show, and it was never fully explained, and it was never brought up again in the nearly six years that have passed since then. Heck, even The Waters of Mars, the Doctor said the laws of time had to obey him now as the last of the Time Lords.
ReplyDeleteThis is just a guess, and maybe someone already said it, but since the Doctor time travled with the young Kazran, he was traveling forward on his time stream, unlke rose, who was traveling backward on her time stream. I don't know if this would make a difference, I'm just speculating.
ReplyDelete